April 2022
11Apr

The Association between Mandated Environmental Liability Recognition and Voluntary ESG Disclosure Quality

By Daniel A. Bens, Cai Chen & Peter R. Joos We examine the association between mandated Asset Retirement Obligations (ARO), i.e., environmental clean-up costs of normal operations estimated on the balance sheet, and the quality of voluntary ESG disclosures. We hypothesize that when firms recognize larger AROs with higher accuracy that this effort will spillover into enhanced voluntary disclosure of a broad range of ESG outcomes. Empirical evidence supports this hypothesis. In a sample of environmentally sensitive industries, we find...

April 11, 2022
Articles, Investment, Pension Management, ,
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Changes in Retirement Savings during the COVID Pandemic
11Apr

Changes in Retirement Savings during the COVID Pandemic

By Elena Derby, Lucas Goodman, Kathleen Mackie, & Jacob Mortenson This paper documents changes in retirement saving patterns at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. We construct a large panel of U.S. tax data, including tens of millions of person-year observations, and measure retirement savings contributions and withdrawals. We use these data to document several important changes in retirement savings patterns during the pandemic years relative to the years preceding the pandemic or the Great Recession. First, unlike during the...

April 11, 2022
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Heterogeneity in Household Spending and Well-being around Retirement
11Apr

Heterogeneity in Household Spending and Well-being around Retirement

By Patrick Moran, Martin O'Connell, Cormac O'Dea, Francesca Parodi & Michigan Retirement and Disability Research Submitter. We study heterogeneity in spending patterns around the time of retirement. Using rich consumption data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, and exploiting within-household spending variation, we systematically classify households into groups characterized by differences in consumption transitions at retirement. We decompose the overall spending changes into the contribution made by different subcomponents of consumption. We find that the households that increase their...

April 11, 2022
Adequacy, Articles, ,
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ESG and Private Market Assets: Pension and Insurance Investors Shifting the Trillions (2022 – 2026)
07Apr

ESG and Private Market Assets: Pension and Insurance Investors Shifting the Trillions (2022 – 2026)

By M. Nicolas J. Firzli, Nick Sherry & Guan Seng Khoo The co-authors of the article, are amongst the original coiners of term such as “infrastructure as an asset class” and “pension superpowers.” They also predicted, at the onset of the Covid Crisis, that a “historic realignment on the asset allocation front is happening precisely at the moment when ESG is moving centre stage: even in once staunchly neoliberal jurisdictions like Texas, Alaska or Switzerland, the smart money is betting...

April 7, 2022
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07Apr

Strategic partnerships and ICT solutions in extending social security coverage in Africa

By ISSA Through strategic partnerships and modern information and communications (ICT) solutions, member institutions of the International Social Security Association (ISSA) are strengthening the scope, extent, and adequacy of social security coverage. Across Africa, the quasi totality of countries has social security schemes and/or programmes theoretically covering most of the population. The policy discourse on extending social security coverage during the last decades culminates in the enactment of new legislation to expand the scope of coverage and reforms on existing schemes...

April 7, 2022
Articles, Innovation, System Sustainability, , ,
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07Apr

The economy-wide effects of mandating private retirement incomes

By George Kudrna This paper investigates the economy-wide effects of mandating private (employment-related) pensions. It draws on the Australian experience with its Superannuation Guarantee legislation which mandates contributions to private retirement (superannuation) accounts. Our key objective is to quantify the long-run implications of alternative mandatory superannuation contribution rates for household economic decisions over the life cycle, household welfare, and macroeconomic and fiscal aggregates. To that end, we develop a stochastic, overlapping generations (OLG) model with labor choice and endogenous retirement,...

April 7, 2022
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March 2022

Looking into Longevity: Q&A with Professor David Blake
31Mar

Looking into Longevity: Q&A with Professor David Blake

By David P. Blake & Howard Kearns Defined benefit pension schemes are increasingly focusing on the impact of longevity risk on their liabilities. Howard Kearns, longevity director at Insight, speaks to Professor David Blake, professor in the Faculty of Finance at Bayes Business School and Director of the Pensions Institute, on the impact of the pandemic on longevity, the consequences for pension schemes, and the future of the longevity hedging market. Sourse: SSRN 543 views

March 31, 2022
Articles, System Sustainability, ,
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How Do Private Equity Fees Vary Across Public Pensions?
31Mar

How Do Private Equity Fees Vary Across Public Pensions?

By Juliane Begenau & Emil Siriwardane We study how investment fees vary within private-capital funds. Net-of-fee return clustering suggests that most funds have two tiers of fees, and we decompose differences across tiers into both management and performance-based fees. Managers of venture capital funds and those in high demand are less likely to use multiple fee schedules. Some investors consistently pay lower fees relative to others within their funds. Investor size, experience, and past performance explain some but not all...

March 31, 2022
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Sustainable Investment & Asset Management: From Resistance to Retooling
25Mar

Sustainable Investment & Asset Management: From Resistance to Retooling

By Virginia E. Harper Ho Globally, market demand is rising for investment products and practices that take “environmental, social, and governance” (ESG) factors into account, challenging asset managers and capital markets to adapt in new ways. This chapter outlines why sustainability issues are increasingly relevant to mainstream asset owners and asset managers. It then explores the evolving regulatory landscape for sustainable investment in the U.S., focusing on the degree to which it supports or facilitates ESG integration into investment management...

March 25, 2022
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¿Cómo ajustan los hogares sus ingresos, ahorros y consumo después de la partida de los hijos?
25Mar

How Do Households Adjust Their Earnings, Saving, and Consumption After Children Leave?

By Andrew G. Biggs, Anqi Chen & Alicia H. Munnell Whether parents adjust their consumption after their children leave home has important implications for our understanding of retirement income adequacy. Prior studies have found that parents reduce consumption after their children become independent, allowing them to save more for retirement. Other studies, however, have found that savings for retirement does not increase. If households are both consuming less but not saving more after the children leave, where are the resources...

March 25, 2022
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